DETROIT — Max Scherzer is stern and focused on the mound. He’s all business with a ball in his right hand and a batter sizing him up 60 feet, 6 inches away.
And business has been great for Scherzer, whose vastly improved curveball has made him a likely All-Star and potential 20-game winner.
In the clubhouse, Scherzer is different. He can usually be found joking with somebody or running a pool on the latest major sporting event.
“I try to stay positive, no matter what,” Scherzer said. “I’m living my dream by playing baseball for a living. I enjoy every day I can play this game.
“There are so many different characters on this team. We have all kinds of people from all kinds of different countries. (Justin) Verlander is a character all the time. There’s Latin music playing, and I’m running all the pools. The one now is on the NBA Finals. We even have a video guy (Jeremy Kelch) who talks trash.”
We sat in the dugout at Comerica Park before batting practice on the last homestand, discussing his life inside the game and off the field.
But there was one topic he wouldn’t discuss — his younger brother, Alex, who took his own life on June 21, 2012, after battling depression for many years.
“I’m just not talking about it now,” said Scherzer, who stared straight ahead and waited for the next question.
I’d spoken with Scherzer three years ago about how Alex, an assistant financial analyst, got him involved in using advanced metrics to analyze baseball statistics. Alex once told Max that, because of the rise in his fly-ball outs, he was bound to give up some homers.
Max indeed gave up two homers in the next game and has used metrics in that regard since.
There are very few things about baseball and life that don’t remind Max of his brother. They were extremely close.
Sometimes, though, the door should remain closed to the public on such private thoughts, and life, in many other ways, has been good to Scherzer.
He finds joy in his hobbies — scuba diving, golf, travel — and mostly in the love of his life, Erica May.
“We’ve been together ever since we met in college at Missouri,” said Scherzer, who was drafted in the first-round by the Arizona Diamondbacks after his junior season in 2006. “She was a softball player, and we were working out at the training facility. I came to find out, she was a pitcher, and she really caught my eye.”
So it was her pitching that did it?
“It was the total package,” Scherzer, 28, said with a grin. “She has the looks and smarts, too. We plan to be married this offseason.”
May, 27, was a history major at Missouri. Scherzer said she finished up her degree at Colorado State and is working online for an MBA.
Scherzer, who scored 35 out of a possible 36 on the American College Test, studied business finance at Missouri.
Seems like a perfect match. They’re both smart, appealing ... and can pitch.
They’ve also teamed up with Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski and his wife, Karie Ross, in supporting a tiger preservation program that began with Ross’ “Pennies for Paws” donations, then branched to the Fish and Wildlife Commission's Endangered Species Fund.
Congressional legislation created a tiger stamp that sends a portion of its cost to Wildlife Without Borders.
Scherzer lives in Birmingham, Mich., during the baseball season, but he and May spend winters in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Camelback Mountain — with vistas of Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale — is a weekly climb he makes.
“I run Camelback, and it’s an overall fitness test,” Scherzer said. “It takes me a half hour to get to the top up a park path, and there’s some hand-over-fist climbing as you move up the mountain. I hate running a mile and long distances; it’s boring.
“But this climb is adventurous, and there is a good sense of accomplishment at the top of the mountain. It’s fun to see the whole valley and the geography of Phoenix. It’s cool to watch a whole city from one point.”
Adventure lights up Scherzer’s eyes.
“Scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in Maui was just great,” he said. “You’re down there swimming with sea turtles and whitetip reef sharks. It’s an adrenaline rush, but it’s safe.”
Life with the Tigers is another kind of adventure — what with the clubhouse pools, salsa music and Verlander.
I asked Scherzer to describe his friendship with Verlander. Scherzer shook his head and chuckled before saying, “He’s hard to describe. He’s probably the best pitcher in the game and can dominate. And he’s fun to have on the team, even if it cost $140 million to keep him around.”
It was another zinger for his buddy, who signed an extension through at least 2019 that is guaranteed to pay him $180 million.
I mentioned that the two of them seem to enjoy one-upping each other.
“People infer that onto us,” Scherzer said, “but I would not describe it that way at all. Both of us are on the same team, and we’re trying to win as many games as possible. The more talent on a team, the better off you will be.”
Scherzer is 8-0 with a 3.24 ERA headed into Tuesday night’s start at Kansas City. He’s tied for second in the American League in wins behind Boston’s Clay Buchholz (9-0).
Scherzer's 100 strikeouts (third), .185 opponent batting average (second) and 0.89 WHIP (second) were among the league’s best through Sunday’s games.
He’s on pace to win 22 games, and I asked about the significance that plateau would have for him.
“Twenty wins would mean I’m pitching well with a good team behind me,” said Scherzer, who was 16-7 last year. “The ultimate goal of winning the World Series is all that matters here.
"The sole purpose of everybody here — from the manager to the general manager and through everybody in the whole system — is about winning the Series.”
One thing’s for sure, they’ll enjoy the quest.
